The Old Picture
by WinterBarrows
Summary: Elesis muses over times gone by, and an old photo she has of her and Ronan. Little does she know what's waiting for her when she turns out the lights. Rated T for language.


This is a story I sloppily thought up and wrote up within the past 2 hours. I was inspired to write by a friend I met on Miiverse who recognized me and told me he liked my stories. Thus, inspiration to write.

Disclaimer: I don't own Grand Chase or it's characters, because if I did, there would be a lot more RonanxElesis official art. XD

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Elesis sighed, laying down on a bed, her flaming red hair splayed out around her. It was late, and the candle beside her bed was beginning to flicker out. Still, she lay on her back, holding a picture frame above her head, staring at it in the dim lighting. No one would bother her at this hour; the rest of the Ruby Knights would be asleep right now. With this knowledge, she shed a single tear, it slowly rolling down her face. She hated crying, but she could hardly help herself when she stared at this photo.

It had been a year since she had seen them. Any of them, actually. Upon her return to the Ruby Knights, she had quickly assumed her proper position of leader, and within a week was too busy for anything else besides running the Ruby Knights.

It had been a year since the Grand Chase had officially been disbanded, their purpose finished. The goodbyes had been sad, but promises had been made to visit each other often. To her knowledge, none of those promises had been kept. As far as she was aware, everyone had become as busy as she had upon returning to their former lives.

But no, what she was crying about tonight was not her friends, though she missed them dearly. Her friends were not in this picture, either. This picture was of her, and the man she loved, arms wrapped around each other as she blushed when he had kissed her cheek for the photo.

She loved this photo. They had been caught at the perfect time. It was the first time he kissed her, as well. Back then, she had punched him shortly after the photo was taken, as she disliked being caught off guard like that, but in this photo, she just looked stunned, and he looked gorgeous.

His name was Ronan Erudon, and she loved everything about him. From his girly looks, to the way he always treated her with respect and kindness. She loved him, and missed him dearly.

Before she had left for the Ruby Knights, Ronan had proposed. He offered her the chance to come live with him in the castle in Kanavan, leading a plush life and being treated like royalty. She could lead the Kanavan Royal Guard beside him, and they could live happily ever after.

She had refused. She knew what she wanted, and that kind of life was not for her. She wanted to lead the Ruby Knights, as her father had, helping the people of Kanavan, and eventually having a child of her own to follow in her footsteps. Ronan had been devastated, but knew he couldn't change her mind. She knew he couldn't exactly resign from his position as head of the Kanavan Royal Guard, as his position had been passed down to him through family, and he had been trained to lead it from a young age. He had not offered to step down from his position for her, and she didn't suggest it either.

And with that, they had went their separate ways. Since that day, she had spent many nights crying at night, staring at this very photo she held now, remembering the good times she had spent with him in the Grand Chase.

Did she miss being a part of the Grand Chase? Absolutely. Did she wish she could go back? Not exactly. She liked leading the Ruby Knights again. But…

No, she would go back if she could. Even if everything was different, she'd want to go back. She felt out of place here, amongst those she grew up with. She missed her family, the adoptive family she had found within the members of the Grand Chase. She missed everything about it. She especially missed Ronan.

She could not go back, though. She was here now, and time only moved forward.

She sat up, and put the photo back in a drawer in her night stand, beside all the letters Ronan had sent her over the past year. She had always found it silly, that despite living in the same city, he wrote letters instead of coming to visit. So she hadn't responded to a single one of them. She couldn't bring herself to write. After how upset she had been over the way things ended between them, and how upset she was that he could not even find the time to come by and say hello, there was nothing she could bring herself to write to him now.

He never ceased in sending her the letters, though. One came every week. Week after week, he would tell her how much he missed her, how much he wished she were there with him. Week after week, he would tell her about his days, how demanding the Queen of Kanavan was, the adventures he went on now. Week after week. He could find the time to write these letters, but could not find the time to come by. Yet he never asked why she didn't respond. Perhaps he knew, or perhaps he knew there was no hope in asking such a question.

She wanted to respond, though. To tell him how she had cried every night since the last time they saw each other. To tell him that she, too, missed him. But truth be told, she'd rather say these things to his face than on some silly paper. Words on a page couldn't convey feelings the way words spoken could, though she still was terrible at conveying her feelings either way.

She pulled the photo back out, and closed the drawer, instead setting the frame on her night stand and blew out her candle. The wax had all melted away, and there was only a small length of wick left. She made a mental note that she would need to get a new candle tomorrow. She laid back down in her bed, smoothing her light red nightgown down around her, pulling a crimson blanket up to her chin. She rolled to her side, looked at the picture, and fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming about Ronan.

She was awoken by the feeling of something sinking down on her bed, shifting the mattress. It was still dark in the room when she opened her eyes, and she knew she had not been asleep long. She tensed, slowly reaching for her sword that she kept beside her bed, her hand feeling empty air. She panicked, and sat up, demanding to know who was there.

"Looking for this?" Something flashed, and she recognized the darker black shape that was now waving around a few feet in front of her as her sword. The high pitched voice that taunted her sounded familiar, and she could hear a smile in that voice. It sounded male, and matched the voice that had been in her dreams only moments ago much too perfectly.

"Ronan? Am I dreaming still?" Her own voice sounded shaky and groggy to her own ears, and she brushed hair from her face to see if she could get a better look at the figure sitting at the edge of her bed. It didn't help; it was still much too dark to see.

A sudden flare of fire appeared before the man's face, as he held his hand up to hold it. She recognized his features instantly. He was smiling, his deep blue eyes dancing with the light of the ball of fire in his hand. Elesis forgot all reason in that moment, and pounced at the man, ignorant to the fact that he was holding fire and that she may very well still be dreaming. At that very moment, she didn't care.

Ronan doused the flames before he caught her or the bed on fire, letting her weight smash into him, tackling him to the bed. He laughed quietly, wrapping his arms around her, as she squeezed him tightly and buried her face in his chest.

"You're not dreaming, my love." Ronan whispered quietly into her ear, smoothing her messy red hair. She began to make small noises and shake slightly, and it took a moment for Ronan to notice that she was crying. He held her tightly and waited for her to calm down.

Elesis cried for a good half hour in Ronan's arms, ashamed of herself for showing such weakness in front of him. He didn't comment on it, but when she sat up finally, she blushed nonetheless and apologized.

"Are you really here? How? How can I not be dreaming?" Her voice rang with curiosity, and her red eyes stared widely at how this man could possibly be here right now.

"I left. I gave the Queen my letter of resignation and simply left. I couldn't take being her lap dog any longer. I desperately wanted to be with you. So I just… Left." He laughed at his own rashness, rubbing his head with his hand. Elesis sat, mesmerized by his words.

"But… How? I thought you couldn't leave?" Elesis reached out to touch his face, to assure herself that he was really there, and that she wasn't just imagining this.

"I know. I found her a person capable of doing my job, and stepped down from being Captain. Now I don't have to live in the castle, and now I'll have time to myself. I don't have to devote my entire life to revolve around the Queen's every whim. I didn't leave the guard, though. And I couldn't stand not seeing you any longer, so I snuck in." Ronan felt quite proud of himself for all that he had done for her.

Elesis sat back, appalled. "You just resigned today?!"

"A few hours ago, actually."

Elesis couldn't believe it. "So what will you do now?"

Ronan looked over at the wall. "Find a place to live, preferably somewhere nearby to you. Continue working for the Guard, perhaps marry you…" He trailed off, and shifted his vision to look at Elesis from the corner of his eye.

Elesis blushed, then became angry. "After all these months, only now are you coming here? Expecting to just walk back into my life, like nothing has happened between us?"

"Yes." Once again, his answer stunned her. She shook; she could hardly believe he could be so stupid.

Yet, isn't this exactly what she wanted? What she had been hoping would happen all this time? That he would just walk back into her life, and everything would be alright? She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, her anger subsiding. How much work had Ronan done to leave his post? He made it sound easy, but she was sure there was much more to it than he was letting on to. She was sure he had taken a great wound to his pride in doing this for her. She took a deep, steadying breath, and looked Ronan in the eyes. He was watching her, waiting for her to react.

"Then you better be prepared to work your ass off," she smiled, holding out her hand, "because you've got a lot of work to do if you want this to work."

He didn't take her hand, but instead leaned forward and passionately kissed her on the lips. She didn't fight him, but once he pulled away, she went all out and decked him right in the face.

"Just like old times… Things really haven't changed." The old picture on the night stand caught Ronan's eye.

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A/N: As I said earlier, I thought up this story simply because Falcon told me he liked my stories. Thus, I've been in a happy high all day, and wanted to write a romancey-type story because of it. So instead of working on Carry On or Love Notes, I once again think up something random and just... Write. When I should be sleeping. Screw bed times! :D (Also, Falcon, if you're reading this, I will still write up your story idea! I just need a better grasp of what characters to use for it!)

I don't even have much to say about this story, other than I love Ronan and Elesis, and I wanted to write something about them, since I've yet to do so. I thought of this story as I went, so I'm sure it's full of errors and terrible-ness. But I'm submitting it now before I have time to think about it and scrap the whole thing.

This is my first time in a long time writing in third person. I'm not that good at it, but I feel like it fit better in this story. It actually just stared with "Elesis sighed" for about 10 minutes, so after that I was too lazy to go back and fix it into first person, so I stuck with it. Let me know what you think.

Also, I'm severely lacking in the idea department lately, so if you have any ideas, feel free to fire me off a PM and share them with me! I love writing, and as long as it's Grand Chase related, I'll probly drool over it and turn it into a story over night.

And as always, read, review, and enjoy this story! Gotta love the fluffy one-shots.

-Barrows


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